Former Premier League and World Cup star Christian Atsu is trapped under rubble after a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, killing at least 2700 people.
The huge quake struck on Monday morning local time, toppling buildings and crushing families to death in their sleep.
A second powerful 7.5-magnitude tremor rocked Turkey again later in the day, sparking panic as rescuers desperately sifted through the rubble with their hands to free loved ones, who can be heard screaming from below.
A total of 1651 people are confirmed dead in Turkey, with 1050 more killed in Syria.
The death toll is expected to rise as rescuers search through what remains of apartment buildings that have been completely flattened.
More that 11,000 people have been injuread across teh two nations.
Former Newcastle United winger Atsu, 31, is among those unaccounted for in Turkey, where he plays for Hatayspor.
Several members of his team had to be rescued after the earthquake, but he is still missing, as is his team’s sporting director Taner Savut
The earthquake hit hard in Kahramanmaras, where Hatayspor are based.
Atsu represented Ghana at the 2014 World Cup, playing for them 65 times, and was the best player at the 2015 African Cup of Nations.
He scored the last-minute winner in Hatayspor’s 1-0 victory on Sunday.
Television images showed shocked people in Turkey standing in the snow in their pyjamas, watching rescuers dig through the debris of damaged homes.
More than ,700 buildings were damaged across 10 Turkish cities, the Turkish vice president said.
The quake, described as one of the strongest to hit Turkey in more than 100 years, struck at 4.17am local time at a depth of about 17.9 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said, with a 6.7-magnitude aftershock striking 15 minutes later.
Turkey’s AFAD emergencies service centre put the first quake’s magnitude at 7.4, adding that it was followed by dozens of aftershocks.
The earthquake was one of the most powerful to hit the region in at least a century, affecting southeastern parts of Turkey that are home to millions of refugees from Syria and other war-torn regions.
“There are many damaged buildings,” AFAD chief Orhan Tatar said in nationally televised remarks. “People should avoid buildings.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who will be under pressure to oversee an effective response to the disaster heading to a tightly contested May 14 election, conveyed his sympathies and urged national unity.
“We hope that we will get through this disaster together as soon as possible and with the least damage,” the Turkish leader tweeted.
